Keeping you informed and campaigning for the truth about your investments…

FCA on the ropes: your chance to land a punch

Posted on January 24, 2016

Connaught victims may have seen the House of Commons Adjournment Debate on 12 January. The Chairman of the Connaught All-Party Parliamentary Group, Guto Bebb, and MPs who’ve been following the case made some highly pertinent points and raised crucial questions about this long-running case.

The Minister looked distinctly uncomfortable delivering a response that was clearly drafted by Capita’s pals at the Financial Conduct Authority, which we understand has taken the additional precaution of placing two of its employees on long-term secondment into the Minister’s office in a bid to shield her from any correspondence from the public that might contradict the regulator’s spin.

Guto and Treasury Select Committee member John Mann have delivered another decisive blow this week by calling for a House of Commons debate into whether the FCA is fit for purpose, which will take place on Monday, 1 February.

Scheduled for three hours in the afternoon rather than half an hour in the evening, it is likely to attract a lot more MPs and massively more media coverage. It will focus on three main regulatory failures:

The Connaught Income Fund Series 1

Interest-rate swap mis-selling

Cancellation of its investigation into banking culture

Please contact your Member of Parliament to ask him or her to attend this crucial debate. If you don’t have his or her name or contact details, they can be found using your postcode here. If you are able to visit your MP’s constituency surgery to discuss the case, that would be even better. If you need information or would like us to suggest some questions he or she might ask, please email us at connaughtactiongroup@gmail.com. We’re particularly keen to hear from anyone living in West Worcestershire, whose MP, Harriett Baldwin, is the Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

We’ve also teamed up with Bully Banks, the group representing IRHP mis-selling victims, to organise a demonstration outside Parliament to show the strength of consumer feeling. It is CRUCIAL that as many Connaught investors as possible turn up, as we need to show politicians and the FCA that we demand that the regulator acts urgently and decisively to get our money back and protect the public from the wrongdoers.

PLEASE, PLEASE join us. We’ll be meeting directly outside the main entrance to the Palace of Westminster at 2.30pm. We expect the demonstration to last around 30 minutes, following which as many of us as possible will stay to watch the debate from the public gallery and others will retire to a local hostelry or head home. It would help us to have some idea of numbers so please email us at connaughtactiongroup@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

By revving up your MP to attend the 1 February debate and by attending the demonstration, you can show your support for Guto, John and other politicians who are working tirelessly to ensure our case is top of mind with the Minister and a thorn in the FCA’s side and for the Action Group.

With the FCA about to announce its third Chief Executive in less than a year and facing more scrutiny from politicians and the media than ever, we sense that it needs to achieve some high-profile wins if it is to survive in its current form. We urgently need your help to ensure that our plight is top of mind when the FCA board considers why Parliament is questioning whether it is fit for purpose and considers what it needs to do to save itself.